While there was a taste of danger involved, no fingers were lost on the first day of my culinary classes. I know some of you are a bit concerned about my excessive handling of a very sharp knife - rightfully so based on my first day in class and sometimes general clumsiness. But I'm happy to report that I can still count to ten with my fingers.
We received an overload of information on Saturday and I'm still trying to process it all. The culinary world is similar to the pastry world, yet also very different. The exact measuring of ingredients goes out the door and suddenly recipes are just guides. Cooking is more about knowing how flavors work together and using the best ingredients available to make the natural flavor of the products shine. We learned how to slice and dice potatoes, onions (tears were falling) and lots of fruit - including mangos, pineapple, apples and citrus fruits. And I'm happy to say that the knife and I are becoming friends again, although it hasn't totally won back my trust yet. I don't think I'll get stabbed in the back, but the hand is another story.
We made acorn squash, sautéed snow peas, braised peas a la francaise and whipped up some hummus. Everything was delish, but unfortunately I don't have pictures to prove it. I do, however, have pictures of the lovely picnic that Greg and I shared for dinner that evening.
And also the scrumptious brunch that I whipped up on Sunday. These potatoes faced the wrath of my knife and were transformed into fairly symmetrical hash browns. I think I can julienne myself an A on our practical next week if I turn these babies out again.
In closing, I'd like to share my favorite Chef quote of the day. I really took this to heart because of my on-again off-again relationship with my knife. Chef was demonstrating fruit slicing and pointing out how important it is to slice off one side of the fruit first so that you have a flat side to lay the fruit on before you continue slicing and have the whole thing rolling around the table. Then he picked up a huge watermelon and said, "When you see things like this, you should think danger." Well said. Welcome to the danger zone. I'm your host, Kenny Loggins.
If I never see another swan in my life, I will not be upset. I made it through our final pastry creams class yesterday, but everything did not go quite as well as I had hoped. The good news is that I survived and didn't fail. The bad news is that I wanted to wring my tiny, crispy swans' necks.
We started out our day by catching up on a few things from the previous week. First, we made chocolate soufflés, which involve pastry cream so we were able to practice a batch of that before our practical exam. The soufflés turned out deliciously and unfortunately I don't have a picture because they must be eaten right out of the oven. If I had brought one home to photograph, you would think I made a chocolate graham cracker. But they tasted like light and fluffy brownies. Next, we made dark chocolate mousse. This was fun and fairly easy to make - although I'm sure anything seems easy when you have an intense practical looming on the horizon - and I was able to bring some home after chilling it in the fridge all day. It was definitely the best thing I made all day. Or, as Greg said between bites, "This is the best thing you've made. Ever." Here's a bite for you.
That brings us to the portion of my Saturday where frustration began and a few expletives were exclaimed. Before lunch, Chef had us all mise en place (get everything organized and all the ingredients measured out) for our practical in the afternoon. After lunch, we took our written exam first, which I think I did okay on, and then the fun began. I started with my pastry cream, which turned out perfectly (as quoted by Chef). Then I made my crème anglaise, which also turned out great (as quoted by Chef). While these were cooling in the refrigerator, a dark cloud settled over my chef's hat. Pate choux officially became my worst enemy yesterday. I knew I wasn't great at making this dough after I practiced at home on Monday; however, I was still able to create some pretty nice looking swans. After whipping up my first batch of pate choux yesterday though, I wanted to cry. It was very oily and watery and there was no way that it was going to pass as dough. I could barely even pipe it out on the pan. Chef let me remake the dough and pretty much the same thing happened, but I had to bake it off anyways and do the best I could with the final results.
Lucky for you, I don't have pictures of my tiny, burnt necked swans, but just imagine a darker, shrunken version of my swan from last week and you'll get the idea. I attempted to save myself with some creative plate presentation - we were able to pour our crème anglaise onto a plate and decorate it with some swirled raspberry sauce. Then you place the swans on top facing each other (they're called courting swans). My two swans were matching in size and shape, but they were definitely ugly ducklings and no one would be courting them anytime soon. Chef was fairly lenient on the grading scale and I received a B for my work. And now I know what I did wrong - not cooking all of the moisture out of the mixture on the stovetop before adding the eggs to it in the mixer. I will be practicing at home sometime - but probably not anytime in the near future. Maybe I'll be inspired in the Spring when swans migrate back to Indiana ponds.
For the next seven weeks, I will be trained in culinary arts. I am going to sharpen my knife and season some meat. Stir up risotto and poach fresh eggs. I'm excited to improve on my culinary skills - although you must admit that I've already come a long way from the hotdogs and macaroni and cheese du jour of my childhood...
Final taste - anyone know what movie this post's title is from?
I never thought I'd say this, but I miss baking bread. That's right - I miss waiting for the yeast to rise and the little breaks you get while the bread does its thing all by itself. Because pate choux, pastry cream and crème anglaise do not attempt to do anything besides be perfect and stress me out. And dirty a ton of dishes in the process. This past Saturday was a looooong day.
We once again made pate choux and pastry cream in our groups, both of which turned out just fine for my group. We practiced making our swans since that's what we'll be graded on for our practical next week. We were then all individually required to make a small batch of crème anglaise. I was glad we were able to practice it alone, however, I'm sure the sight of me stirring milk and sugar over the stove while attempting to whisk a ton of eggs and egg yolks (17 total!) together with the other hand, was quite a sight to see. Meanwhile I also had my notebook with the recipe scribbled on it tucked into my apron and it fell onto the floor at least five times. Note to self: the faster you memorize key recipes, the sooner you stop looking like a total klutz. After the milk mixture has boiled, you have to temper the eggs by adding a small amount of the milk mixture to them at a time, whisking all the way. Then you put it all back on the stove - double boiler style to help prevent the sauce from heating up too fast. I managed to complete all of this and then proceeded to stir. And stir. And stir some more. Finally my sauce was up to the required 185 degrees (probably from the hot daggers shooting out of my eyeballs into the pan as I watched it oh so carefully) and I was ready to remove it from the heat.
My hard work ended up paying off. I had the best looking crème anglaise of my group, so we used it to make our crème brûlée. The others were used in bread pudding and thrown out. Our crème brûlée was baked perfectly and Chef showed us how to use a torch to melt sugar on the top. When he asked if anyone wanted to try out the torch, I shot my hand up and began torching away. Even though I charred it a bit too much for my taste, I managed to exit class with this little beauty completely of my own making.
Our next assignment was to make a butter cream frosting so that we could learn some cake decorating basics on our leftover chiffon cakes from last week. We failed to get this icing right not one, but three times, and eventually had to make a basic flat icing. This whole sugar-melting thing is really a pain in the butt if you ask me. It makes for some frustrating frosting. We used our flat icing to spread over the cake and learned how to create shells around the edge of the cake. At this point, I'm pretty sure I don't have a career in cakes, but with a few hundred practice cakes, who knows? It was fun to practice...
This Saturday is our final exam and practical for pastry cream basics. Because I'm feeling a little on edge about the detailed work that's necessary for these products, I decided to try out a test run in my own kitchen today. My pate choux came out okay - they look good, but taste a little less than so - and my pastry cream came out wonderfully. I practiced putting together a few delicate swans and now all I need is a little pond for them to float around in.
Cross your feathers that I can create two swans that look this good on Saturday...
This weekend I discovered that I like cream puffs and éclairs more than I thought I did. We had our first of three classes on pastry creams, custards and mousses yesterday and it was very interesting, albeit a bit overwhelming. Pate choux, pastry cream and crème anglaise are items that a pastry chef makes in literally every kitchen, so these are definitely important items to learn and master. My first stab at it went well, but it will definitely take some practice. Including a lot of practice separating egg yolks and whites, as pretty much every cream, meringue, frosting, etc. uses one of these and/or whole eggs.
Pate choux is the dough used to make cream puffs, éclairs and similar pastries and it is piped like frosting onto a cookie sheet. It was fun to pipe the dough into different shapes, although I'm a bit nervous about our practical exam. We have to make a swan - that actually looks like a swan. The pastry cream was a bit more complicated to make, but fun to pipe into the puffs. Here are the finished delectables.
Along with the meringue, we also made an Italian buttercream icing that didn't quite turn out, and a chiffon cake that was okay, but not fabulous. (Possibly because we didn't have any icing to put on it.) It was pretty like a soufflé, but then fell after we took it out of the oven. And it took a TON of eggs. This is a chunk of it.
Next Saturday we get to take a crack at chocolate souffles, Bavarian cream, chocolate mousse and creme brulee. Mmmm. Bring on the eggs...
Tomorrow is the beginning of my second term of pastry classes. This term I will be bringing you tastes of creams, mousses, meringues and sauces, along with a venture into the world of culinary art. A mix of sweet and savory - what could be better? And I'll learn how to keep clean while doing it all in my safety and sanitation class on Friday evenings. Perhaps there will be a lesson on how to use sharp utensils and not lose any appendages as well...
Before I get all sauced up in the new term, however, I wanted to share another bread baking experience that I had during the holidays. As you all know, in exactly seven months from today, I will be marrying my wonderful fiancé Greg. Over the holidays, I was able to spend a few days in Raleigh, NC, visiting my future in-laws and eating lots of delicious food and cookies. We're talking serious amounts of cookies here, people. A never-ending plate of over ten varieties of cookies. How I did not gain twenty pounds is beyond me.
In between bites of cookies, I learned how to make the infamous "Easter bread" with Greg's mom. I had never made a cinnamon raisin swirl bread before, so I was excited to see how it was done. (Plus, now I won't have to pay $4.00 for the Pepperidge Farm version at the grocery store.) This bread is made in a similar way to Stollen, although the end product is obviously quite different. We started out by melting ingredients and adding in potatoes. Tasty tip: instant potatoes work just fine for potato bread sponges. Spend the extra time eating more cookies.
Next, we moved things to the mixer - a Kitchen Aid mixer this time.
Being a pastry chef in training, I was eager to finish the mixing by kneading the dough on the counter, even though it's not really necessary because of the Kitchen Aid mixer's skills. I kneaded the dough for several minutes and didn't use all of the flour that the recipe called for. Greg's mom wasn't so sure this was a great idea, but I assured her that we didn't need it. Here's the leftover flour as evidence.
Lucky for me, the bread rose nicely during fermentation. So instead of eating my words, I ate more cookies.
After splitting the dough in half, we rolled it out on the floured countertop...
sprinkled it with tons of cinnamon and sugar...
ate a few more cookies...
oops, I mean - and then rolled it up before sticking it in a loaf pan.
Looks like a tiny loaf of bread, huh? That's why Step Nine is an important step in the baking process.
An hour later and these babies are buttered and ready to go into the oven. When smells of cinnamon raisin bread filled the house, my only thought was "How am I going to get these back to Indianapolis?"
While I managed to get them back home, they weren't in exactly the same shape as when they entered my suitcase. But I love bread so much that a semi-smashed loaf isn't enough to kill my yeast. Slice it, toast it, butter it up and I'm one happy gal. Plus, I had a great time baking with my future mom-in-law.
I'll leave you with some tasty trivia: does anyone recall what Step Nine is in the bread baking process? (Hint: I listed them in one of my first posts.) The first person with the correct answer gets a shipment of leftover Christmas cookies.
Christmas is a holiday full of traditions and memories, and I hope everyone has a handful of new ones from this year. As promised, I am going to share the process of our annual family baking tradition. My great grandmother used to bake German Stollen bread every Christmas morning when my grandma was young, and the tradition has been passed down from there. I started helping my grandma make the Stollen (and decipher the old, handwritten recipe) a few years ago, and this year was extra special because I actually understood the process and why it takes so long to complete. Even though we did things a little different than I might of learned in class, the Stollen was absolutely delicious and gobbled down yesterday morning.
Before we begin, it's important to note that we use a potato sponge for the bread instead of a basic flour, water and yeast mixture. You can't really taste the potatoes in the bread, but I'm sure it adds a little something extra to the final product. Here is the sponge being made on the night of December 23 before it was fermented overnight.
Before I left for the evening, a brief moment of panic set in when I asked my grandma if she had everything to complete the bread the next day. She said yes, however, after a short second exclaimed, "I don't have any raisins!" Since we don't put anything except raisins in the bread, this is a rather important ingredient. Luckily, we were able to make a run to the grocery store and save Christmas. Lesson learned: make your list and check it twice, just like Santa Claus.
The next morning, I returned to grandma's house to get the dough all mixed up. I should have brought my new Kitchen Aid 6-qt mixer along with me, but it wouldn't be Christmas if the dough didn't run up the beaters of grandma's trusty small mixer.
Another interesting item here is that we always have to add an undisclosed amount of flour to the dough to make it workable and not runny. Which leads to that small bowl getting fuller by the flour scoop. Once the dough started looking good, we emptied it out on to a floured cloth and the eight minutes of kneading began. Last year I thought this was hard work, but it felt like clockwork to me after my bread baking in class last term.
Once my grandma was satisfied with the kneaded bread, we covered it to let it rise into one huge loaf.
After two hours, it was time to separate the gigantic loaf into three separate loaves and let them rise again. Here are the two smaller loaves getting ready for a proofing by the heat vents.
Another few hours and it's time for the oven. These babies came out nice and brown and were slathered with butter...
and powdered sugar.
The whole process took about 24 hours and then the bread was covered until Christmas morning. And all that's left to do at that point is pray that the bread is done inside and tastes as good as it looks. There's always a sigh of relief from my grandma's mouth when we first cut into the bread on Christmas and all looks well.
But the true test comes after my great uncle spreads a slice with butter and powered sugar and takes the first bite. Once it's been approved by him, it's time for the whole family to dig in and devour two of the loaves. This bread is seriously hard to quit eating. I had at least 5 pieces.
That's just one of the perks of being a baker. You have to try your work and make sure it's up to par. And then try it again just in case. My grandma taught me that.
Another Christmas, another Stollen. Here's to another year of delicious and tasty traditions!
It's official - I've made it through the first term of school and definitely feel more like a chef than I did ten weeks ago. And even though I've hung up my pastry kit for three weeks, I will be indulging in some baking adventures over Christmas break. And eating a ton of holiday cookies. Mmmm frosted sugar cookies.... Before my mind is completely taken over by a spoonful (or twenty) of sugar, here are the details of my last day in the classroom kitchen in 2010.
We arrived on Saturday morning ready to take our final written exam and bake up some stellar biscuits and muffins, however, we had to wait a bit to do so. Our first project of the day was English muffins. English muffins are my favorite go-to breakfast food and I never thought I could make any that would taste as good as my trusty Thomas brand muffins, but these were very delish. The dough is fairly easy to make and to my surprise, this bread is not baked but fried in a skillet in butter. Chef gave us compliments on our work and immediately slathered up one with butter to eat.
